this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2026
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Vet prices are absolutely absurd these days. It’s fucking bullshit that they are exploiting people like this. If your response is, “just buy pet insurance”, you are part of the problem. Pet insurance should NEVER have become a thing.
Seriously, what is the point of pet insurance, when no vet accepts it?
I am of the opinion that Medicare for All should include pets. No living creature should have to pay for healthcare.
It’s the same basic principle by which human health insurance companies operate. Make maximum profit by taking in premiums and denying as many claims as possible. Our whole system is fucked. In 2025 United Healthcare made $9.425 billion in profit. How many people had to die or live in abject misery to enable that?
they never didn’t reimburse me pretty much full costs. I think outside the $500 yearly minimum
It's great that is your experience. How do they make money?
Monthly premuims I paid weren’t cheap at the end
It's hard enough to convince some people that every citizen should get healthcare. Now try to convince them to give healthcare to every living creature.
All voters require healthcare for themselves. Not all voters have pets though.
The vet doesn’t have to take it, you pay for what ever and they reimburse you. Worked great for my two dogs until a certain age then it’s not worth it anymore
All you’ve done is convince me it’s easy to scam you.
Nothing wrong with pet insurance being a option. Here many people get it because a random 500€ bill in the wrong month can really fuck you up. Unfortunately older dogs aren't eligible.
Question is, why are vets increasing their prices? Is there just not enough competition? Insurance alone can't be the answer.
Because vet practices are getting bought up by private equity and monopolizing
They're getting bought up by PE.
Bingo. The same private-equity machine buying up veterinary practices is increasingly tied to the insurance meant to make those practices affordable. We’ve watched the same consolidation play out in healthcare, housing, and countless other necessities: control the service, raise the price, then sell people the financing or insurance they need to survive it.
The system increasingly seems designed around one principle: any dollar left in an ordinary person’s pocket is a dollar someone higher up has failed to extract. And the most frustrating part is that, as individuals, there seems to be almost nothing we can do except keep paying.
This website can help pet owners know which clinics are PE-owned to help make informed decisions regarding veterinary care: https://privateequityvet.org/
It’s not vets that are the problem. It’s private companies buying up small business vetrinarians and then raising prices at all of their clinics. This is made even easier by the fact that said company also owns all of the drug companies as well.
My state has a massive vet shortage because of this exact situation. A company came in and bought up all of the small vet clinics in town, those amazing vets left because they weren’t getting paid enough.
Now we not only have less clinics to choose from, and the ones we can choose from seem like different clinics but are actually the same business, but we also have no interest in professionals living and working here because they wouldn’t make enough.
Please stop blaming vets for something that is clearly the fault of greedy corporate billionaires.